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Bullies Throw Deaf High School Student’s Backpack In The Toilet

Bullies dump the contents of a deaf student’s backpack into a toilet at school

Hey, parents! Ready for a little rage sandwich to fill you up for that part of the day between “stop talking I haven’t had my coffee yet” and “go to sleep before I take away everything that you love”? How about a couple of high school students who thought it’d be a hoot to dump their deaf classmate’s belongings — including a battery for his cochlear implant — into a toilet?

A new school year has just started, which means it’s time for our first reminder that school is the worst and bullies are the worst multiplied by forever. High schooler Alex Hernandez, who has been deaf since he was one-year-old, found the contents of his backpack, which included his school supplies, tablet computer, debit card, and a battery for the cochlear implant he needs in order to hear, in a bathroom toilet after someone stole the backpack while he was getting his food in the cafeteria.

Hernandez, who is used to being teased about his deafness because there are teenagers out there who I invite to choke on a bag of d***s, told KMTV, “Those students think it’s okay to bully a deaf student, but it’s not. It’s not okay to bully someone who is disabled, deaf or hard of hearing. Or anyone for that matter.” He also said that the part that upset him the most was that he lost an English project he had been working on. “I work really hard on my project and homework because I just want to make my mom to be happy and know that I did a good job on the homework.”

Deep breaths, people. I know you’re pretty full from that Rage Sandwich, but let’s see if you can make room for a little Disgust Dessert.

School officials reviewed security camera footage and learned that two male students took the backpack. Hernandez said he didn’t know either of them. Hernandez’s mother told local station KMTV that the school was able to identify the students, who told the school that they didn’t know Hernandez was deaf. Once more for the people in the back: they said they didn’t know he was deaf. I guess that when you’re caught on tape your best option is to claim that you targeted a random student instead of a disabled one? Maybe that’s the difference between a bag of regular d***s, and dry-roasted, mixed d***s sold in bulk. At any rate, one student has been suspended, and the other is still under investigation.

Hernandez, proving once again that people being bullied are often the very best people we know, isn’t looking for revenge: ”I just want to talk to them; I don’t want to fight them,” Hernandez said. “I want to talk it out. And talk to their parents about them so they can tell them they need to teach them the right thing to do.” That’s one hell of a kid. His mother, however, is planning on filing a police report, something I also support wholeheartedly. And, in a gesture of support from his classmates, a student inspired by a Facebook post from Alex’s sister set up a Go Fund Me page to raise money to replace the lost supplies. The page reached it’s $800 goal within hours.

As a person with a disability, I know that growing up disabled is no picnic — sometimes it’s more like an all-you-can-eat-buffet in hell where they’ve run out of clean forks and pie. But the truth is that living through experiences like this makes you stronger and more empathetic, two qualities that his bullies are sorely lacking. Perhaps, through this, they will learn a much-needed lesson about compassion.